1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device capable of extracting a two-dimensional code, and a method and a program thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the problems of unauthorized copying of a document have been increasing, as the digital multi function peripheral (MFP) spreads. As countermeasures against these problems, there are known techniques to suppress copying of a specific document. For example, the techniques to suppress copying of a document include the following.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H04-009963 (1992) discloses a method for prohibiting copying of a document when an MFP reads a document to which a two-dimensional code having copying prohibition information is added in advance.
In general, some MFPs have functions of storing into storage and outputting such as E-mail transmission. FAX transmission, etc., in addition to the copying function, and when the MFP reads a document to which copying prohibition information is added, it is possible to prohibit output uniformly even if any output function is specified.
As a two-dimensional code to be embedded in a document, the QR code (registered trademark) as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H10-312447 (1998) is known. The QR code is used more general-purposely compared to the two-dimensional code described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H04-009963 (1992). Consequently, there is a case where the QR code is used as a two-dimensional code and the QR code in which copying prohibition information is embedded is added to a document.
When an MFP interprets a two-dimensional code, it is supposed that data in the QR code includes a specific identifier determined in advance, a format indicating the arrangement of data (information), type information, such as a version indicating the type of the format and ID, etc.
There is a case where a plurality of two-dimensional codes in which copying control information of the copying operation (such as copying prohibition information and copying permission information) is embedded, are added to a document to be copied in an image forming device. Further, there may be a case where a two-dimensional code in which control information of the copying operation is embedded and a two-dimensional code of the same kind but in which different information is embedded are added at the same time when a general-purpose two-dimensional code, such as the QR code, is used as a two-dimensional code.
This corresponds to, for example, a case where a two-dimensional code is added newly to a document to which another two-dimensional code has already been added, or a case where a plurality of documents is to be copied at a time and each individual document includes a different two-dimensional code. Further, there may be a case where version information indicating modifications of specifications is included in a two-dimensional code, and consequently, there exist mixedly various pieces of version information.